In plant taxonomy, commelinids (originally commelinoids) is a

clade In biology, a clade (), also known as a Monophyly, monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that is composed of a common ancestor and all of its descendants. Clades are the fundamental unit of cladistics, a modern approach t ...

flowering plant Flowering plants are plants that bear flowers and fruits, and form the clade Angiospermae (). The term angiosperm is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek words (; 'container, vessel') and (; 'seed'), meaning that the seeds are enclosed with ...

s within the

monocots Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, ( Lilianae '' sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but with various ranks a ...

, distinguished by having cell walls containing ferulic acid. Well-known commelinids include palms and relatives (order Arecales), dayflowers, spiderworts, kangaroo paws, and

water hyacinth ''Pontederia crassipes'' (formerly ''Eichhornia crassipes''), commonly known as common water hyacinth, is an aquatic plant native to South America, naturalized throughout the world, and often invasive species, invasive outside its native rang ...

(order Commelinales), grasses, bromeliads, rushes, and

sedge The Cyperaceae () are a family of graminoid (grass-like), monocotyledonous flowering plants known as wikt:sedge, sedges. The family (biology), family is large; botanists have species description, described some 5,500 known species in about 90 ...

s (order

Poales The Poales are a large order (biology), order of flowering plants in the monocotyledons, and includes families of plants such as the Poaceae, grasses, bromeliads, Juncaceae, rushes and Cyperaceae, sedges. 14 plant families are currently recogniz ...

ginger Ginger (''Zingiber officinale'') is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or ginger, is widely used as a spice and a folk medicine. It is an herbaceous perennial that grows annual pseudostems (false stems made of the rolled bases of l ...

cardamom Cardamom (), sometimes cardamon or cardamum, is a spice made from the seeds of several plants in the genus (biology), genera ''Elettaria'' and ''Amomum'' in the family Zingiberaceae. Both genera are native to the Indian subcontinent and Indon ...

turmeric Turmeric (), or ''Curcuma longa'' (), is a flowering plant in the ginger family Zingiberaceae. It is a perennial, rhizomatous, herbaceous plant native to the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia that requires temperatures between and high ...

galangal Galangal () is a rhizome of plants in the ginger family Zingiberaceae, with culinary and medicinal uses originating in Indonesia. It is one of four species in the genus ''Alpinia'', and is known for its pungent, aromatic flavor. Greater gal ...

banana A banana is an elongated, edible fruit – botanically a berry – produced by several kinds of large treelike herbaceous flowering plants in the genus '' Musa''. In some countries, cooking bananas are called plantains, distinguishing the ...

s, plantains, and bird of paradise flower (order

Zingiberales The Zingiberales are flowering plants forming one of four orders in the commelinids clade of monocots, together with its sister order, Commelinales. The order includes 68 genera and 2,600 species. Zingiberales are a unique though morpholog ...

). The commelinids are the only clade that the

APG IV system The APG IV system of flowering plant classification is the fourth version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy for flowering plants (angiosperms) being developed by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group (APG). It was publish ...

has informally named within the monocots. The remaining monocots are a

paraphyletic Paraphyly is a taxonomic term describing a grouping that consists of the grouping's last common ancestor and some but not all of its descendant lineages. The grouping is said to be paraphyletic ''with respect to'' the excluded subgroups. In co ...

unit. Also known as the commelinid monocots it forms one of three groupings within the monocots, and the final branch; the other two groups are the alismatid monocots and the

lilioid monocots Lilioid monocots (lilioids, liliid monocots, petaloid monocots, petaloid lilioid monocots) is an informal name used for a grade (biology), grade (grouping of taxa with common characteristics) of five monocot order (biology), orders (Petrosavial ...

Description

Members of the commelinid clade have

cell wall A cell wall is a structural layer that surrounds some Cell type, cell types, found immediately outside the cell membrane. It can be tough, flexible, and sometimes rigid. Primarily, it provides the cell with structural support, shape, protection, ...

s containing UV-

fluorescent Fluorescence is one of two kinds of photoluminescence, the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation, many substances will glow (fluoresce) with color ...

ferulic acid.

Taxonomy and Phylogeny

The commelinids constitute a well-supported clade within the monocots, and this clade has been recognized in all four APG classification systems. It consists of four orders: * Arecales (palms) * Commelinales (spiderwort, water hyacinth) *

(grasses, rushes, bromeliads) *

(gingers, banana) As of APG IV (2016) the family Dasypogonaceae is no longer directly placed under commelinids but instead a family of order Arecales.

Historical Taxonomy

The commelinids were first recognized as a formal group in 1967 by

Armen Takhtajan Armen Leonovich Takhtajan or Takhtajian (; surname also transliterated Takhtadjan, Takhtadzhi︠a︡n or Takhtadzhian, pronounced takh-tuh-JAHN; 10 June 1910 – 13 November 2009), was a Soviet- Armenian botanist, one of the most important fi ...

, who named them the Commelinidae and assigned them to a subclass of Liliopsida (monocots). The name was also used in the 1981

Cronquist system The Cronquist system is a list of systems of plant taxonomy, taxonomic classification system of angiosperms, flowering plants. It was developed by Arthur Cronquist in a series of monographs and texts, including ''The Evolution and Classification of ...

. However, by the release of his 1980 system of classification, Takhtajan had merged this subclass into a larger one, and no longer considered it to be a clade.

Takhtajan system

The

Takhtajan system A list of systems of plant taxonomy, system of plant taxonomy, the Takhtajan system of plant classification was published by Armen Takhtajan, in several versions from the 1950s onwards. It is usually compared to the Cronquist system. It admits Para ...

treated this as one of six subclasses within the class Liliopsida (=

monocotyledon Monocotyledons (), commonly referred to as monocots, ( Lilianae '' sensu'' Chase & Reveal) are flowering plants whose seeds contain only one embryonic leaf, or cotyledon. A monocot taxon has been in use for several decades, but with various ranks ...

s). It consisted of the following: subclass Commelinidae superorder Bromelianae order Bromeliales order Velloziales superorder Pontederianae order Philydrales order Pontederiales order Haemodorales superorder Zingiberanae order Musales order Lowiales order

order Cannales superorder Commelinanae order Commelinales order Mayacales order Xyridales order Rapateales order Eriocaulales superorder Hydatellanae order Hydatellales superorder Juncanae order Juncales order Cyperales superorder Poanae order Flagellariales order Restionales order Centrolepidales order

Cronquist system

The

treated this as one of four subclasses within the class Liliopsida. It consisted of the following: subclass Commelinidae order Commelinales order Eriocaulales order Restionales order Juncales order Cyperales order Hydatellales order Typhales

APG system

The

APG II system The APG II system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group II system) of plant classification is the second, now obsolete, version of a modern, mostly Molecular phylogenetics, molecular-based, list of systems of plant taxonomy, system of plant taxonomy that ...

does not use formal botanical names above the rank of order; most of the members were assigned to the clade commelinids in the monocots (its predecessor, the

APG system The APG system (Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system) of plant classification is the first version of a modern, mostly molecular-based, system of plant taxonomy. Published in 1998 by the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group, it was replaced by the improved ...

used the clade commelinoids).

References

Bibliography

* * * *

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q868546, from2=Q1115272 Plant unranked clades